BABC 04-8: This paper explores the shift of residential mortgage lending from a system where credit was rationed to prime quality borrowers to a system where subprime borrowers are offered credit using risk-based pricing options. The emergence of risk assessment tools, particularly regarding an applicant’s willingness to pay, in theory can help overcome inefficiencies due to imperfect information available to lenders.

BABC 04-7: Little systematic work exists to address the many and varied ways some borrowers end up with subprime mortgages and to what extent those loans serve the true financial needs of those borrowers. This paper is an attempt to fill this gap by exploring patterns of subprime lending activity in the City of Philadelphia. We concentrate on the mechanisms through which low- and moderate-income individuals obtain their loans with a particular emphasis on “outcomes” of those loans.

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A decade of unprecedented growth in the rental housing market may be coming to an end. Fewer new renter households are being formed, rental vacancy rates have risen, and rent increases have slowed. At the same time, renter demographics are changing and nearly 21 million households continue to pay more than 30 percent of their income for rent.